, 1887-09-25
% FINE WORK"
Rev Ebenezer SnOdgrass Describes
Gaming Device.

LOU can talk ABOUT your canada bills,
Hungry Joes, Doc. Bagges and Soapv
Smiths" said the Rev. Ebenezer Snod-
grass the other evening, ''butth smooth
est confidence man who ever skinned a
sucker on this continent was hung in
Deadwood in 1876.
He vas one Of the most i~noffensive
and harmless looking creatures who ever
struck the hills, and the second Sunday
after he attended my church l fired a
keno dealer named Slick Sam and gave
Mr.. Tompkins, as he called himself the lob
of passing the hat.
The deacon was one of the best pslam
singers l ever met. He possessed a won
derful voice and could handle it we'll and
was an accomplished o~rganist and plan
list, but so devout that all offers of the
management of the Little Gem variety
theater to Engage him as leader of the or
chestra in that resort were unavailing.
Sam Bowman, proprietor of the resort,
became so angered at the steadfast re-
fusals of the professor to visit his place
that he would have killed my right hand
bower one day if 1 hadn't pulled my u
first.
After the difficulty between Bowman
and myself on account of Tompkins it was
evident to all that there was bad blood
between the main guys of the church and
the owner OF the variety theater. We
all knew that Bowman would not injure a
hair of a non combative man like the dea-
con and | saw that the boss of the niger
singers and myself must settle the Diff
Guilty, but we never fought, Just why you
will learn later on.
Zone night the piano player at the
Gem was shot through the lungs In a lit
tie free for all. Bowman didn't want to
d%isappoint the audience and hoping to
induce the professor to accept the dead
mans situation hung up a sign reading:
$500 REWARD o AN IVORY FOUNDER.
The placard had the desired effect, for
neither Tompkins nor myself were raking
off a great deal at the gospel game.
I'm four or five days Bowman and his
head musician became fast friends, and
the gang were astonished to observe that
Bowman occasionally wasted his valuable
time by playing single handed seven.up
with the deacon for two and a half a
game, and were more astonished to learn
that Bowman didn't have a very soft
thing.
THE professor kept winning and the
stakes kept growing larger until Temp
kins carried about $1,000 of Browns
money, and 800 changed hands every
time n of the men made seven points.
FINALLY Bowman became convinced
that his opponent was robbing him, but
tie work was SO fine that he couldn't
see it. In desperation he hired every
faro dealer in the camp to watch the
musician, and in this way detected him.
Sleeper Jack, a faro dealer from
Cheyenne, dropped to the racket.
Talk about smooth work, this thing
that the deacon used was sublime
in its simplicity, yet certain in its opera
ton as heart disease. You couldn't
guess it in a lifetime, and yet the man
who played against and afterwards found
it out would curse himself for being such
a blind sucker.
1T was sinply one of the circular mir
rors about three-eighths of an inch in d.
ameter which dentists use in exploring
the mouths of their victims. Tompkins
fixed it in the palm of his lett hand with
a piece of shoemaker's wax, always gazed
downward when dealing, and sliding each
card back a trifie before throwing it from
the pack, learned the size of the paste
board by viewing the reflection of the
corner Indicator in his useful mirror.
THE trick pleased Bowman so much
that he offered to let the deacon go if he
would return the money. The lunatic re-
fused on the ground that Bowman never
caught him cheating, and pulled a dirk
knife on the proprietor of the Gem.
Drawing a dirk settled his hash.
That was something the boys wouldn't
stand and an %offense that | couldn't con-
scientiously approve Of myself. They
hung him up at once, but had the decency
to give him a pretty good funeral, the
only drawback to which was the absence
of a good singer and piano player.
Il don't believe that the looking glass
racket was ever worked before or since.
1t certainly was a daisy and its inventor
ought to have a monument"